Red-hot Wings teach young Oilers some lessons their coach hopes they learn

For the Detroit Red Wings, God is in the details. The Oilers? They are bedeviled by the details, even as they lurch up the learning curve.

When the Red Wings are on their puck possession game, they can seem awfully God-like, as they were in defeating the Oilers 3-2 on Monday night.

To watch a master like Pavel Datsyuk dish a backhand pass through a defender’s legs right onto the tape of power forward Tomas Holmstrom, who unleashes a one-timer that forces Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to make a glove save is to witness hockey of a very high order, indeed.

It’s watching Oilers centre Shawn Horcoff moving through the neutral zone, using one hand to control the puck, then seeing a determined, back-checking Datsyuk overtake him, strip him of the puck and relaunch a Red Wings attack.

It’s simple things, fundamental things, done over and over, all game long. Make the simple pass, clear the defensive zone quickly, take the puck deep into the offensive zone, go to the net, find the open man, get traffic in front of the goalie, tip shots, be hard on the puck, on and on.

The Red Wings, for example, marked Oilers rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins very closely all game long. They attend to all the details necessary to produce victories.

The Red Wings have talent to burn. They score artistic goals at will, it seems. But here’s the thing: they don’t seem to be trying to do it. They’re just playing the game the right way.

The young Oilers can match the veteran Red Wings in pure skill, or come close. But, if anything, they’re trying too hard to be spectacular.

The thing is, when a Jordan Eberle finishes off a late-period flurry by hammering a slapper past Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard, it is spectacular.

But when the Oilers squander power play opportunities, including a minute-long five-on-three in the first period, it may be because they’re trying to be too fancy, as much as anything.

“We worked hard,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney. “We did a lot of good things.

“We have to stick with it, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Nobody’s going to hand you points.”

Certainly not the streaking Red Wings, who have a 13-2-1 record on home ice and now have cut the cards, at 8-8 on the road.

The Oilers lost their fourth game in a row, lost it on a late third-period goal by Drew Miller, another tip-in.

But Renney was right, the Oilers stayed with the Red Wings for most of the game. With Taylor Hall, Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers can apply offensive pressure in a way unavailable to them for years.

“They are way faster than we were (as young players),” Zetterberg said, referring to himself, Datsyuk, Holmstrom. “First of all, they are at least three years earlier (getting to the NHL) than we were.
“I was 22, they’re barely 19. It’s amazing to see how developed they are skill-wise and with their strength and speed.”

Zetterberg said young players often roll through the first 50 games of a season “on pure joy. Then you hit the wall after 50 and you’re kind of out for 10-15 games, but then you work yourself back, coming back for playoffs.

“But I think in your second season, you know a little bit more, you know what’s going on, you know how to prepare and focus for every game. And also to forget. You have to forget games, you can’t think about what you did yesterday because it’s a new day, next day.”

The Oilers, as a group, sure seem to have hit some sort of wall, after getting a quick jump on the season. Two strong games against San Jose and Detroit still added up to two straight losses.

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